Opin Partners Board of Advisors

David Ellington, Board of Trustees, Member of Investment Committee 2002 - 2008 for $14 billion San Francisco Employees Retirement System Fund.

Michael Speissbach, Vice Chairman, China M&A; former President, WESRAY International, SVP and Member of Investment Committee for $500 million Mellon Bank fund, Director International Marketing, Merrill Lynch.

Tariq Jawad, Director and Group Head of Emerging Market investment banking at Rodman and Renshaw for mid-market companies in the Middle East, India, Europe and China in the real estate, infrastructure, energy, logistics and business services sectors.

Bryan Caisse, Mr. Caisse is President and Chief Investment Officer of Huxley Capital Management (NY), a hedge fund specializing in securitized assets and TALF investor with nearly $1 billion in ABS assets under management and new-issue CMBS.

Opin Partners Executive and Principal Team

Charles Cecil, Partner, Chief Executive Officer

Cecil has 30 years of real estate experience as a principal and intermediary in commercial, residential, hospitality and retail property in the major U.S. metro markets including extensive experience in restructuring and workouts. Mr. Cecil has completed hundreds of real estate transactions involving many billions of dollars of property. He has been called upon to serve as an expert witness and managed the restructuring of a publicly traded real estate investment company while in Federal Receivership.

Mr. Cecil completed both his undergraduate and graduate work at Columbia University, receiving a B.S. in economics and an M.B.A. in finance respectively. Mr. Cecil served as Managing Director of Barrington Equities, LLC, a developer and owner of multi-family and commercial office property in Manhattan and elsewhere. Beginning as a consultant in 1998, Mr. Cecil became the number two executive (C.O.O.) to the company's owner, acquiring, financing, developing and selling property in Manhattan. The company's most recent project, Greenwich Place Condominium (NY, NY) sold out for $70,000,000 in 2008, providing an IRR of 96% to the investors.

In 2001 Mr. Cecil and a partner created a new financial guaranty insurance product and, partnering with Castle Point Holdings, Ltd, founded a new insurance company, INSURENTsm. INSURENTsm provides the first institutional guaranty to apartment renters to enable them to secure the apartment they seek. From 1994 to 1997, as Managing Director of Granville International (New York, NY), Mr. Cecil was an advisor to investors and property owners including The China Investment Bank (PRC) on acquisitions, financing and leasing in the U.S., completing transactions with LVMH and Casio among others. From 1991 to 1993 Mr. Cecil was Senior Vice President of Banca Commerciale Italiana Capital Corp (New York and Milan) and was responsible for the start up of its global cross-border acquisitions/financing advisory concentrating on real estate and hotel clients.

From 1989 to 1991 Mr. Cecil was Managing Director of Cecil, Evans Partners (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles) where he co-managed this real estate consulting firm advising, among others, the Saudi Royal Family on acquisitions in the U.S. Key transactions included the acquisition of a Marina Del Rey, CA portfolio of 3 hotels, 3 multi-family properties, two retail centers, commercial office building, marina facilities with 1100 boat slips and 2 development sites. From 1987 to 1988 Mr. Cecil was a merchant banker as a Managing Director of Hong Kong based Asian Oceanic Group and President of Asian Oceanic Real Estate Corporation. Transactions included mezzanine financing to acquire and develop the Hoboken Shipyards (NJ), The Charlestown Navy Yard (Boston) and the acquisition of over 30,000 hotel rooms, creating one of the world's then largest hotel companies. From 1985 to 1986 Mr. Cecil was a consultant, providing acquisition and financing advisory services to The Travelers Companies, Davis, Kahn Investors and Vanguard Investors.

From 1980 to 1985 Mr. Cecil served in various posts at Royal Business Funds Corp. (NASDAQ), a real estate investment company with assets in major metro areas in eight states including New York, Florida, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Colorado, New Jersey and North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Mr. Cecil began as an Asset Manager and rose to become Executive Vice President and C.O.O. of the parent company and President of all subsidiaries. Royal had mezzanine equity and debt investments in over 2,000,000 sf of commercial office, multi-family residential, SFH residential, retail, hospitality and resort property which Mr. Cecil retsructured, refinanced, joint ventured, developed and sold. After completing business school, Mr. Cecil joined Bankers Trust Co. in New York, completing the executive credit training program and working in Mergers and Acquisitions.

Affiliations:

Urban Land Institute (ULI); Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM);

National Multi-Family Housing Council (MFHC). Columbia Graduate Business School Ambassador. Co-Founder, Columbia Real Estate Association. Board Member, Concerned Residents of North Salem.

David Drake, Partner

David Drake, founder and Chairman of LDJ Capital in New York City, has been involved in Real Estate financing and services, Project financing, Media, Luxury Products, and Energy project financing for over 20 years. His investment strength is in real estate service focused portfolio managment. LDJ Capital has delivered a liquid and annual Return on Investments of 85% since inception 2003.

Mr. Drake's Media and Luxury Products investments intercorrolates directly with the luxury segments of real estate investment strategies and clients of LDJ Capital. The major segments LDJ Capital has interests in real estate are, but not limited to, corporate housing; real estate investment and brokering firms; relocation services; property managment; value added acquisitions and REO dispositions.

Born and raised in Vasteras, Sweden, Mr. Drake holds Bachelor's Degrees in both Chemistry and Marketing from the American University in Washington, D.C. where he was Summa Cum Laude. Mr. Drake holds an MBA in Finance and an MA in International Law and Economics from George Washington University where he was awarded the Wallenberg Scholarship for academic merit.

After completing his education, Mr. Drake worked on Wall Street in Institutional Sales for Alfred Berg, working in both the New York City, and Stockholm, Sweden offices.

In 1996 Mr. Drake joined the NY real estate market and shortly became the Senior Director in commercial real estate at Prudential. His focus and investments were on building rehabs and income producing properties. Today this includes ownership in firms involving, but not limited to, services in loss mitigation, in non-performing notes, in tapes distribution, in developing properties, in property management, in brokerage, in construction and bridge financing, in hard money lending and in realty financing for income producing retail, hospitality and office products. Mr. Drake hosted the Harvard Club and Boston Symphony performances at his house at numerous occasions for charity and sits on the advisory board of Best Buddies Charity for autistic kids. Mr. Drake has been behind $250,000 in charity donations primarily through concerts he produced personally with different pianists at Carnegie Hall. The fifth will be held in 2009 for St. Jude's Children Research with the U.S.-Spain Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Drake speaks 8 languages and is the Chairman of Silver Creek Real Estate Investments, Brick House Security (leading gps technology), The Soho Loft, Quad Strategies (energy and project financing) and Drake Life Realty. He also sits on the board of directors for New York City Corporate Relocation, Prestige Magazine and Scan Assets Finance Advisory. Mr. Drake now has ten divisions at his corporate office at One Penn Plaza in New York City. The investment deal flow handled ranges from $30 million to $2 billion. LDJ Capital private equity has a Return on Investments at 85% annually based on liquid dividends and profits for the last 5 years. His network of accessing investment and finance extends to all continents and includes hedge funds, high net-worth investors, Sovereign Wealth Funds and private equity firms, family offices, money management funds, institutional pension funds and fund-of-funds.

John Williams , CFO

Formerly COO/CFO/CCO of XYZ Capital Management, LLC an equity long short fund with $950 Million AUM, Mr. Williams built an institutional caliber back office infrastructure supporting multiple primes, high gross, high transactional volume with multiple levels of P&L reporting across multiple funds. Selected and implemented technology platforms/applications for investment research, accounting, trading and investor services/marketing. Responsible for managing investor relations and for negotiating agreements/contracts and maintaining relationships with all key service providers including prime brokers, auditor, administrators and electronic trading platforms vendors.

From Nov 2000 – Jun 2002 served as CFO at Avalon Capital Management, LLC., a $400 an equity long short fund with $400 million under management. Built the operational infrastructure, and was responsible for daily operations, month-end financial reporting and tax issues for the fund.
Prior to Avalon Capital Management, served as CFO at Radiant Advisers, LLC ($240 million AUM) and before that he was CFO at VeritasCapital Management, LLC ($125 million AUM).

Assistant Manager of the Hedge Fund Department at the Bank of Butterfield International (Cayman) Limited where he was the account managerfor a number of hedge funds and prepared and reviewed NAV's.
Mr. Williams held accounting positions at New Zealand Funds Management LTD, Dextra Bank and Trust Company (Grand Cayman) and International Risk Management (Cayman) Ltd.

Mr. Williams holds the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), and is a Chartered Accountant (CA) New Zealand. Holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a post graduate Diploma in Finance from Lincoln College, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Opin Partners Board of Advisors

E. David Ellington

Mr. Ellington is a former Trustee and Commissioner on the San Francisco Employees' Retirement System (SFERS) Board (July 2002-January 2008). SFERS is the fifth largest pension fund in the State of California (No. 74 in the US) with US$16.7 billion of assets under management. The SFERS Board also has oversight over a 457 Deferred Compensation Plan with over US$1.6 billion (No. 24 in the US) in assets. Mr. Ellington was Board President, 2003-2004; Chair, Investments Committee, 2003-2004 (Alternatives), 2006-2007; member, Investments Committee, 2002-2008; Chair, Governance Committee, 2003-2006; member, Governance Committee, 2002-2008. and member, Finance Committee, 2005-2008. Mr. Ellington was first appointed to the Board by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and then re-appointed to a second term by succeeding Mayor, Gavin Newsom.

Before joining the SFERS Board, Mr. Ellington was chairman, president and chief executive officer of NetNoir Inc. (investors included Time Warner [NYSE:TWX]; Radio One [NASD:ROIA]), one of the first community portals. Prior to NetNoir, Mr. Ellington was an attorney in Los Angeles. His firm specialized in international, entertainment and multimedia/new technology law. At that time, he served as the chairman of the international law section of the Beverly Hills Bar Association. He is a member of the State Bar of California.

Mr. Ellington has extensive international experience in Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok, London, Dubai and India. His skill set includes asset allocation, corporate governance, private equity, venture capital, media, entertainment law, internet strategy, government policy and philanthropy.

Civic activities: Commissioner, Telecommunications Commission for the City and County of San Francisco (1997- 2002; President: 1997-2000); member, San Francisco Workforce Investment Board (WIB) (2001- 2002); member, United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Advisory Committee on Online Access and Security (2000); White House Fellowship regional review panelist (1999).

Non-Profit activities: co-founder and chairman, OpNet - disadvantaged youth technology training program (1997-2002); charter member, TiE-Silicon Valley (2004- ); member, Business Executives for National Security (BENS) (2000-2002); board of governors, Commonwealth Club of California (2000-2002) - public affairs forum; board of directors, San Francisco Jazz Organization (SFJAZZ) (1999-2002).

Academic activities: advisory board, Center for Media Studies, Rutgers University (1999-2002).

Awards: UPSIDE magazine's Technology 'Elite 100' (1999; 2000); BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine's 'Entrepreneurs Award': Business Innovator of the Year (1996). Mr. Ellington received his BA in History from Adelphi University and MA in Comparative Politics and Government [subfield:Africa] from Howard University. He received his JD from Georgetown University Law Center, where he concentrated on international, corporate and tax law. He then completed Cornell University's FALCON (Full Year Asian Language Concentration) Program in Japanese.

Michael F. Spiessbach

For twenty-five years Michael Spiessbach has been involved in cross-border investments and other business ventures in over 50 countries, primarily in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He began the finance and international portion of his career in 1980 when he became Associate Director, later Director, of international marketing and finance for Merrill Lynch Hubbard where he accessed Merrill Lynch’s worldwide network of high net worth and institutional clients. In 1983 he and a few fellow Merrill executives left and formed an S.E.C. registered investment advisory company at Mellon Bank, with $500 million in managed pension fund assets. At Mellon Financial Services Corp. Mr. Spiessbach was senior vice-president, a member of the investment committee and marketed investment opportunities to Mellon’s global private wealth and institutional clientele. In 1985, as president of Wesray International (an affiliate of William E. Simon’s legendary LBO company) he handled the offshore business of this investment boutique. In 1989 he was the sole partner with a European industrialist (one of Fortune’s 200 richest people in the world) in Fulcrum Capital.

For five years he was an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel at the Fortune 10 pharmaceutical multi-national Johnson & Johnson. In the late 1990’s, as President of King World Ventures, he was responsible for the company’s nearly $1 billion in cash and during his incumbency King World’s market value increased 75%.

From 2003-2005 Mr. Spiessbach served as non-executive chairman for China, at WorldSpace Corp, which owns and operates an in-orbit satellite over Asia. Michael’s primary focus centered on Greater China because of the earlier success of an entrepreneurial venture, of which he was president, which became the seminal TMT transaction in Asia. This entity, AsiaSat, had as founding investors Hong Kong’s wealthiest man, Li Ka-Shing, China’s investment arm (CITIC), and Cable & Wireless (today PCCW). An historical footnote to this transaction is that Michael negotiated the world’s first investment in something not physically on the planet earth (the Anik C-1 satellite in storage orbit in space).

Due to the success of AsiaSat numerous TMT opportunities were routed to Michael. In 2000 he became the founding vice-chairman of Sun Television, a HKSE-listed media production and distribution company (for which he was instrumental in raising the financing) that broadcasts A&E Networks programming into China. It was among Societé Generale’s “Jewels of Asia 2000, ” and chosen by Forbes Global magazine as not only one of the 300 best small cap companies in the world, but also one of only twenty “stars.” Having been one of the architects of the strategic plan and business model, Michael accepted these awards on behalf of the company in 2001.
Michael is considered an authority on international business, particularly in the areas of cross-border investment and real estate. In December 2006 a book which he co-authored, LBOs and Junk Bonds, was published in Beijing. A sampling of his other published works over the past twenty years includes a chapter in Investing in American Real Estate published in Germany, monthly serial columns in two of China’s leading business magazines, Xincaijing (“New Investment”) and The China Dealmaker, articles in The Financial Times and The Asian Wall Street Journal, and, having been involved at the founding what is today a $250 billion industry, a primer for Western businessmen to understand the esoteric principles of Shari’a investment. He has spoken at conferences and forums as well as been interviewed on several domestic and foreign business news and investment programs.

Mr. Spiessbach holds B.A.., M.A. (Asian Studies) and J.D. degrees (admitted to the bar in 1972) and now lives in New York City having lived abroad several times. Michael is currently chairman of his family holding company as well as vice-chairman of China M & A Management in Beijing, the country’s leading M&A boutique (100 staff in seven cities) and founder of the China M&A Association (CMAA) the industry association of China’s major professional investment and acquisition firms. CMA has a deal flow and financing relationship with Aforge, a leading M&A firm in France, and Oppenheim, S.A., a 200 year-old investment banking firm in Germany.

Tariq Jawad

Tariq Jawad is a Director and Head of Emerging Markets at Rodman & Renshaw. As Director and Group Head, Mr. Jawad supervises the strategic advisory and equity/debt placement functions for mid-market companies in the Middle East, India and China in the real estate, infrastructure, energy, logistics and business services sectors. As one of the first 10 employees at Rodman in 2002, Mr. Jawad set-up the Emerging Markets team and was active in building out the institutional distribution desk. He has been active in over $4 billion of corporate finance and fundraising transactions and was one of the key team members awarded top Broker Dealer for Private Placements in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. Mr. Jawad has over 10 years of the investment banking experience focusing on cross-border M&A advisory and corporate finance services.

Some of his accomplishments are:

-Manage and lead 10-person Emerging Markets division focused on fundraising and advisory for growth companies in natural resources, real estate, infrastructure and logistics/transport in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

-Originate, structure, place and advise on all corporate finance transactions culminating in over $4 billion raised since 2002 -Led largest corporate finance transaction for Rodman & Renshaw by advising Oak Hill Capital in its $426 million acquisition of Vertex Data Sciences, Ltd from the UK

-Grew revenues from approximately $5 million in 2002 to over $75 million in 2007 -Awarded top Broker-Dealer worldwide in 2003, 2004 and 2005 by Private Placement Tracker for number of Life Sciences corporate finance transactions completed

-Manage syndication and placement of reverse merger and acquisition financing vehicles (SPACs/CAPs), including Phoenix India Acquisition Corp. and Asia Automotive Acquisition Corp.

-Lead all investor deal and non-deal institutional roadshows worldwide with over 150 US accounts and over 100 European accounts Prior to his 7 years at Rodman, Mr. Jawad structured and placed $2.9 billion of PIPE and direct financings at Ladenburg Thalmann as Vice President of investment banking between 1999-2002.

Mr. Jawad graduated from Harvard University in European Intellectual History and Political Economy in 1997. He is currently the President of the Harvard Arab Alumni Association and the youngest member in the history of the Board of Governors of the Arab-American Institute Foundation in Washington, D.C. He also sits on the Boards of Arte East, Children of Abraham and ProjectExplorer. He is a 4-year Varsity Soccer team member and won the Youth Soccer National Championship in 1996 with FC Delco of Pennsylvania. He was inducted into the Pennsylvania Youth Soccer Hall of Fame in 2000. He speaks Arabic, Italian and German.

Bryan Caisse

Mr. Caisse is President and Chief Investment Officer of Huxley Capital Management (NY), a hedge fund specializing in securitized assets and TALF investor with nearly $1 billion in ABS assets under management and new-issue CMBS.

From 1997 to summer 2007 Mr. Caisse was The Senior Portfolio Manager at West Side Advisors, a $2.5bn SEC regulated mortgage fund. Between 1994 and 1997, Mr. Caisse was a Managing Director at Bear Stearns Investment Advisors, Inc.
Mr. Caisse's annual returns 1994 - 2007, after fees, averaged 13.8% for his 14 years trading record (only one year had a 0.85% loss). These returns were created using a hedged agency portfolio at low leverage and more than doubled the Mortgage Backed Securities Index and the S & P returns.

Prior to joining Bear Stearns in 1991 Mr. Caisse was an Officer on nuclear submarines, in the U.S. Navy – Lieutenant, 1985-1990. Mr. Caisse graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a B.S in Mathematics (1985) and advanced studies at the U.S. Naval Academy's Nuclear Center.

The contents of this website are intended for sophisticated and institutional investors or their advisors. Opin Partners, LLC is not registered with the SEC, FSA or any other government agency as an advisor or manager. Nothing contained in this website should be construed as investment advice or as a security or an offer to sell or purchase an interest in a security.